The present invention relates to a system for replacing obsolete postal rate data with new data which is used by remote mail processing apparatus.
The postage required to send a piece of mail from its point of origination to its destination is a function of the distance between those two points, its weight, and its class. Sophisticated mail handling apparatus, which are far more efficient than manual handling methods, are now available and usually include a data process capable of correlating information on weight, destination, and class of the mail being handled to automatically compute its required postage. Such apparatus, which is installed at a user's site, may include a scale which weighs the mail and loads weight information into the data processor and a keyboard through which destination and class information are loaded into the data processor. The postal destination may be expressed directly in terms of postal destination zone information or indirectly in terms of postal zip code information which is converted by the data processor into zone information.
The data processor includes a memory which stores postal rate information as a function of mail weight, class, and destination zone and generates an output signal indicative of the required postage for each piece of mail handled.
The mail processing apparatus may also include a postage printing device, that is, a postage meter, which is automatically set to print an appropriate amount of postage in response to the output signal generated by the data processor. The postage may be printed by the meter directly on each piece of mail or on a tape for transfer to each piece of mail.
From time to time certain data stored in the memory of the data processor becomes obsolete. For example, changes in the amount of postage required for a given piece of mail may result from changes in postal destination zone designations, mail and weight classifications, and postal rates or any combination of these factors. When the factors are changed, the obsolete data must be replaced with new data if the mail processing apparatus is to work properly. In the past, in order to do this, the mail handling apparatus may have been physically taken to a central data processing unit so that the memory could be reprogrammed. Alternatively, the memory may have been modular in construction so that it alone could be taken to the central data processing unit to be reprogrammed. Either operation is inconvenient. Moreover, the U.S. Postal Service must rely upon users of the apparatus to return the apparatus or its memory for updating.